Wave settles for 1-1 draw

Hopkins Academy 9/4/13. Frontier's keeper #0 Dylan Husted, comes out of the net and makes a sliding kick save to save a goal in front of the charging Hopkins player #2 Tyler Symarowicz in the 1st half.photo by J. Anthony Roberts

Dennis Gheorghita scored with eight minutes left in the game to pull Turners Falls High School into a 1-1 tie with Greenfield High School in the McGrath North Division boys’ soccer opener for both teams Wednesday night under the lights of Veterans Memorial Field in Greenfield.

The game remained scoreless into the second half but Green Wave sniper Vlad Popusoi found himself in the right place at the right time when he picked up a rebound of Ben Darmanchev’s initial shot that was stopped by Turners Falls goalie Zach Demars, then netted his first of the season to give the Green Wave a 1-0 lead.

Gheorghita netted the equalizer with eight minutes to go when the Indians earned a corner kick that was put into play by Liam Ellis. Gheoghita headed home the ball past Greenfield goalie Tyler Jacques to knot the score.

Greenfield nearly earned the game-winner with three minutes left when Popusoi unloaded a shot for which Demars was up to the task, denying the go-ahead bid and keeping the game even.

“We just couldn’t get that second goal by Zach,” Greenfield coach Kurt Richardson said. “He made an absolutely highlight-reel save on Vlad. But it was a typical first game for both squads — a little bit of feeling out, a little bit of nerves.”

Athol 1, Easthampton 0 — Tyler Lajoie scored midway through the first half and it held up as the only goal as Athol High School got off to a strong start to the 2013 Schmid Division boys’ soccer season with a 1-0 win over Easthampton High School Wednesday afternoon in Easthampton.

The goal came after Easthampton was attacking the Red Raiders’ net, but Athol took control of the ball in its own end and Brad Bousquet worked a wall pass with Alex Page to get out of the zone. Bousquet sent a pass to Lajoie and the sophomore striker moved in on Easthampton goalie Darren Kim and beat the keeper to his left.

That put the game in the hands of the Athol defense, which was an area of concern for Athol coach Dave King coming into the day based on some struggles in the preseason. King’s concerns were alleviated as five players combined to lock down the Easthampton attack, which was limited to just five shots on the day.

“Defense was something that we had been struggling with throughout the preseason,” he explained. “We had given up some shaky goals. But today I’ve got to give credit to our guys — Kyle White and Mike Campos in the middle, Zach Dodge and Nelson Leadbetter on the outside. And Brandon Barilone is a sophomore who came in and allowed us to move Zach up to the midfield. I was really happy with the five guys that played in the back.”

Athol goalie Jamie Posk stopped three shots to post the shutout. Kim and Brady Parker combined to make eight saves in the Easthampton net.

Hopkins 6, Frontier 0 — Evan Delaney and Paul Delamy each scored twice Wednesday and Hopkins Academy made its Schmid Division debut a successful one with a 6-0 triumph over Frontier Regional School in Hadley.

Hopkins jumped out to a 5-0 halftime lead, taking total control of the game in the opening 40 minutes. Frontier coach Dale Totman said he was pleased with his team’s effort in the second half.

“It was a much more even second half,” Totman said. “We played much better defense.”

Tyler Szymkowicz added one goal and three assists in the win, while Pat Knightly chipped in one goal and one assist. Ben Pitta made two saves for the Eagles.

Dylan Husted stopped eight shots for Frontier, which takes on Easthampton Friday at Herlihy Field in Whately.

Pioneer 2, Mahar 1 — Pioneer Valley Regional School scored once in the waning minutes of each half to come back from a 1-0 deficit and post a 2-1 victory over Mahar Wednesday night in McGrath North boys’ soccer action at the Woodward Complex in Orange.

Shawn Dennis staked the Senators to a 1-0 lead on a scrappy goal in the box that was assisted by Owen Cook 12 minutes into the game. Pioneer found the equalizer with under a minute left in the first half on an unassisted goal from Cody Wickline.

The Panthers netted the game-winning goal with 3 minutes, 30 seconds left in the game as Ben Tufano played a ball across the top of the box that Mahar goalie Matt Simmington came out to dive on. He pounced on the ball but had it slip away and Tim Kang was there to pick up the garbage, burying the goal to give Pioneer the season-opening win.

Pioneer outshot Mahar, 8-7. Simmington finished with six saves for Mahar, while Brian Aja stopped six shots in the Pioneer goal.

Drury 1, Mohawk 0 — Connor Meehan scored late in the second half to lift Drury High School to a 1-0 independent boys’ soccer win over Mohawk Trail Regional High School Wednesday in North Adams.

“The game could have gone either way,” Mohawk coach Tony Agrillo said. “We generated some chances. I give Josh Taylor a lot of credit. He played great in our goal, and Sam Slowinski played a great game in the midfield.”

Lee 10, FC Tech 1 — Peter Krejmas scored on an assist from Anthony Chaisson but Franklin County Technical School was no match for Lee High School in a 10-1 independent boys’ soccer loss Wednesday in Turners Falls.

Joey Barcomb made 10 saves in the Eagles’ net.

Girls’ matches

Mohawk 0, Pioneer 0, tie — Sally Slowinski and Jocelyn Carney-Podelski locked down the two nets Wednesday afternoon and Mohawk Trail Regional High School and Pioneer Valley Regional School played to a scoreless Franklin County League girls’ soccer tie in Northfield.

The two teams both finished with 11 shots in their season-openers. Slowinski needed to make nine saves in the Mohawk goal, while Carney-Podolski stopped six shots in the Pioneer net.

“It was pretty much even the whole way through,” Pioneer coach Tina Riddell said. “I was pleased with the result. It was our first game. We lack a little of the maturity that some other teams have because we are so young. We lost a lot of players, and even though we bring back nine players from last year, a lot of them are still young.”

Mahar 5, Greenfield 0 — Mackenzie Tenney and Keuana Foster each scored twice Wednesday and Mahar opened the season with a 5-0 victory over Greenfield in a FCL girls’ soccer game at the Woodward Complex in Orange.

Tenney netted both of her goals in the first half and helped the Senators to a 2-0 halftime lead. Greenfield came out and put a little pressure on to start the second half, but Mahar withstood the spurt and scored three times in the final 13 minutes to ice the win.

“We played well today,” Mahar coach Chad Softic said. “It was a good way to start the season.”

It didn’t take long for Mahar to get on the board as Alex Temple took a corner kick 2:35 into the game and found Tenney, who finished it off past Green Wave goalie Allison Roe. Tenney struck again at the 20-minute mark by finishing off a cross from Cassie Verheyen

In the second half, Carly Mongeau made it 3-0 with an unassisted goal before Foster scored twice in the final five minutes. The two goals from Foster drew praise from Softic, after he said the stopper did a great job of pushing up the field and taking shots when she had them.

“Keauna was tremendous today,” he praised. “It was nice to see her step up and get into the attack a little bit. And she wasn’t afraid to shoot. I bet she had about 10 shots today. She sent a few over the crossbar but it was nice to see that aggressiveness from her.”

Roe finished with 11 saves for Greenfield, while Sydney Whitcomb needed to make just one save to earn the shutout.